Applied Vegetation Science 14 (2011) 358–366 Environmental control of plant species abundance in a microtidal Mediterranean saltmarsh Efrem Batriu, Joan Pino, Pere Rovira & Josep M. Ninot Keywords Abstract halophytes; helophytes; realized niche; soil vegetation relationships; water table Question: To what extent are environmental factors the main determinants of species abundance in Mediterranean coastal marshlands? Abbreviations SAR, Sodium Adsorption Ratio; CCA, Location: The Llobregat delta, Barcelona, Spain. Canonical Correspondence Analysis; GLM, Methods: Vegetation releves´ were performed and a set of water table and soil Generalized Linear Model variables were periodically monitored in 43 sampling points randomly distrib- Nomenclature uted in four marsh areas (sites) along a coastal–inland gradient. A canonical Bolo` s et al. (2005) correspondence analysis (CCA) was performed to identify the primary water and soil correlates of species cover, after considering the effect of site and point Received 26 January 2010 spatial location. The realized niches of dominant species were modeled through Accepted 12 January 2011 Co-ordinating Editor: Bastow Wilson GLMs performed on the first two axes of CCA. Niche overlapping among these species was compared with their coexistence, assessed through pairwise correlations of relative species cover in each sampling point. Batriu, E. (
[email protected]) & Pino, J. (corresponding author,
[email protected]): Results: Water and soil variables explained more of the variation in species’ Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry abundance than site and spatial position. Mean water table level, maximum Applications (CREAF), Autonomous University of water conductivity and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), summarized in the two Barcelona, E–08193 Bellaterra, Spain first CCA axes, explained 23.8% of the variability in species’ cover.